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Faith, a heartfelt trust in God and his mercy towards us, is the most important thing in a Christian’s life. A good argument can be made, in fact, that it is the only important thing, because faith is what pleases God more than anything else. Furthermore, it is faith that gives us salvation, creates all […]

On this website is a list of ten strategies for dealing with obsessional fears when they strike. They are taken from my groups—the approaches students found most helpful. Most of them fall under the general heading of “cognitive therapy.” They represent ways to change perspective on an obsession—the way you look at it or evaluate […]

A while ago I worked with a middle aged man who cleaned and washed for several hours every day. Most of his time was occupied by various contamination fears. He stayed by himself, living a fairly impoverished existence. We tried all the usual approaches to improve his symptoms, such as ERP, ritual delay, and cognitive […]

“Works-righteousness” is a term often heard in Protestant churches. It means attempting to become righteous (the “right kind of person”) through doing what one assumes are good acts. The great insight of the Reformation was that righteousness does not result from works, but rather from faith. The problem with works is that we become prideful […]

One problem I keep running into is the bad advice given by well meaning Christians to OCD sufferers. What typically happens is this. An exceptionally devout individual, the type who takes her Christian faith and practice very seriously, suddenly develops a clear-cut obsessional fear—perhaps an intrusive idea that she is not ‘saved,’ an urge to […]

I was talking with a graduate student the other day with chronic obsessive-compulsive disorder. She has been making some good progress with therapy, and she made a telling observation. “One thing that I have realized as I’ve learned more about OCD,” she said, “is just how much it permeates my thinking. I used to kind […]

“The issue affects my faith a lot,” the young man told me, “and my view of God, too. When I try to read the Bible, I get really afraid and anxious, especially with certain verses like Romans 6:23. It’s hard for me to do any sort of spiritual activities. I’m okay when I’m with other […]

In treating OCD, the key is ERP (exposure and response prevention). In carrying out ERP, often the key is finding an underlying, or “core” obsessional fear. That is not always easy to do. I was talking with a smart, devout Christian student who was suffering the obsessional fear that she was homosexual. She had no […]

Martin Luther knew OCD. For ten years he suffered it severely. Sometimes in his writings, he seems to be directly speaking to those affected by this disorder. Such is the case here, in this quote from his Commentary on Isaiah: “God sends a variety of trials, heresies, and the cross in order to train His […]

“I’m in a major OCD crisis,” the young homemaker said. She had experienced contamination fears since adolescence. Now, however, obsessional doubts had struck her religious beliefs, and she was in worse shape than ever. It started when she attended a new church. The pastor had preached a sermon in which he forcefully stated, “Anyone who […]